Scientists claim to have found evidence that even if earthquakes to not occur directly after water is injected underground, the damage they do to fault line can lead to tremors being triggered by the shockwaves from large earthquakes on the other side of the world.

The practice of injecting water underground is commonly used to by the oil industry and most recently to extract gas and oil from shale reserves in a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Critics of the fracking industry have consistently warned that the technique can cause an increase in earthquakes although the evidence is often contradictory.

In 2011 fracking in the UK was suspended after a series of tremors in Blackpool were thought to have been caused by shale gas exploration there.

The monotorium was lifted in December 2012 after research concluded that most tremors cause no more seismic activity than someone jumping off a ladder.

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However, new findings by geologists at Columbia University in the US have shown that tremors in areas where water has been used to extract oil or gas underground tend to occur around the same time as major earthquakes in other parts of the world.

They say the fluids pumped into wells can weaken fault lines and leave them vulnerable to seismic waves passing from somewhere else.

In April and May 2011 there were a series of earthquakes of magnitude 2.3 near Blackpool that occurred during fracking to explore a shale gas reservoir.

This resulted in a temporary moratorium on exploratory fracking in the UK, but this was then lifted in December 2012.

However, companies are now required to conduct a review of any fault lines in the area and produce a plan showing any seismic risks when applying for a permit.

They are also required to monitor during and after fracking, halting any activity if seismic activity becomes too great.

The new research, however, will strengthen the concerns of those opposed to the industry as they suggest tremors can occur long after water has been injected into the ground by weakening the fault lines.

By examining the catalogue of past earthquake recordings, the scientists found increased stress in faults near to where fracking and wastewater injection had been used.

They found that tremors at these sites seemed to be triggered by major earthquakes such as the one in Maule, Chile in 2010 and the magnitude 9.1 Tohoku earthquake in Japan in 2011.

They found one 4.1 magnitude earthquake that occurred just 16 hours in Prague, Oklahoma, after the Maule earthquake. There was also a swarm of earthquakes in Trinidad, Colorado, close to wells where wastewater had been used to extract methane gas from coal beds.

However, William Ellsworth, from the Earthquake Science Center at the US geological Survey, said: “Earthquakes induced during hydraulic fracturing have lower risk because of their much smaller magnitudes.

“The largest fracking-induced earthquakes have all been below the damage threshold for modern building codes.”

Ken Cronin, chief executive of UK Onshore Operators Group, which represents the shale oil and gas industry in the UK, said: “A number of studies have been done by Royal Society and Academy of Engineering and by Durham University into the minor tremors in the UK and have found the levels of seismicity to be very low.

"The UK has the highest environment regulation in the world.

"The UK Government announced pre-monitoring and a traffic light system of continuous monitoring that ensures any drilling is halted if seismic activity reaches 0.5 on the Richter scale above the background seismic activity.”